President Theater
343 E. 55th Street,
Chicago,
IL
60637
343 E. 55th Street,
Chicago,
IL
60637
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The President opened in the Washington Park neighborhood, just across from the namesake park itself, in 1911. It was located on East 55th Street at Garfield Boulevard. The 781-seat theater was originally independently owned, but was acquired by the Louise Amusements chain later in 1911, then still later, by the Brunhild & Young circuit.
The President would later became the first theater in the eventually sizable Ascher Brothers chain. The theater closed in 1924 and has since been torn down.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Here’s a link to a circa-1916 photograph of the President on a snowy day from the Chicago Daily News collection of the Library of Congress.
Here is a new link to that photo from 11/03 on which the old link expired:
View link
An article in the Chicago Tribune dated 8/26/11 states that the Louise Amusement Company purchased the President Theatre from Issac A. Levinson for $50,000 and added it to its chain of “amusement houses” that also included at that time the Monroe (Monroe Ave. & 55th Street), the Ellis (Ellis Ave. & 63rd Street), the Century (West Madison & Robey Streets), and the Apollo (47th Street & Forrestville Ave.). The article says that the President “will be conducted as a high class vaudeville house”.